how to communicate with beginners

Craig Latta craig at netjam.org
Sun Apr 23 16:38:56 UTC 2006


Hi--

	Edgar writes:

 > If each of us answers questions quickly and to the point (as usually
 > happens), there's no need for a new list.

	François responds:

 > Which means you find it completely appropriate that a newbie wanting
 > just to *learn* then also receive ~1000 mails per month in his
 > mailbox related to [advanced topics].

	I think the best way to participate in squeak-dev is with a newsreader 
connected to Gmane's gateway to/from the list[1]. Any decent newsreader 
(such as the one in Mozilla Thunderbird) can display messages grouped by 
threads, and one can easily filter out undesired threads. I find reading 
squeak-dev this way goes much faster than reading most normal mailing 
lists, even low-traffic ones. I unsubscribed from the squeak-dev mailing 
list years ago. A "real" USENET newsgroup gets a lot more junk messages, 
but with this setup we get the benefits of a newsreading interface 
without that junk.

	I also think it's better to keep beginning and advanced people speaking 
in the same space when it's easy to do, so I wouldn't make a new list. 
Beginners frequently do the teaching. :)  I wouldn't put them in a 
separate place.

	It's not broken; don't fix it. It would be good, though, let people 
know about gmane on the squeak-dev subscription page. I'd go so far as 
to encourage people to use gmane instead of email for squeak-dev. Some 
people actually need to use batch email because they lack interactive 
net access, but most don't.

	François continues:

 > Well at least this comforts me in my "prediction" that Squeak
 > Smalltalk will mainly remain a platform for researchers/hackers.

	It's what we make of it! I think we can make Squeak much more than it 
is. I have a different prediction, and I'm working to make it happen[2].


	thanks,

-C

[1]

	Use "news.gmane.org" as your news server, and subscribe to the 
"gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.general" group. For more information 
about Gmane (including more detail about why it's a good idea), see 
http://gmane.org/.

[2]	http://netjam.org/spoon

[3]

	I find the terms "newbie" and "wannabe" rather degrading. There's no 
need for hazing. :)  We're all learning. I prefer "beginner".

-- 
Craig Latta
improvisational musical informaticist
www.netjam.org
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]





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